Shi Monogatari
by Akatsuki210
Summary: Some years after taking over the shop, Watanuki invites his friends for a One Hundred Ghost Story Night. Frightening tales will be told, old friendships will be renewed, and one guest may have a heartfelt wish answered.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _xXxHoLiC_ or any of its characters.

* * *

**Shi Monogatari**

"Come on in!" Watanuki said brightly and stepped aside to let his friends enter the shop. Although her dark curls were streaked with gray, Himawari looked as beautiful as ever. The crow's-feet at the corners of Doumeki's eyes did nothing to improve the blank expression that had always infuriated Watanuki, but the affectionate gesture of his hand resting on his son's shoulder did.

"And this is Taiki-kun, is that right? It's nice to meet you."

Taiki bowed. "It's nice to meet you too, Watanuki-san. I'm sorry my mother wasn't able to make it."

"There's no need to be sorry; I know Kohane-chan gets very busy with her work sometimes." He glanced at Doumeki over Taiki's head, and the look he got in response confirmed that Taiki didn't yet know the full truth about Watanuki's shop. _If he can see and enter the shop, that means..._

"These are from a gourmet bakery near my house," Himawari said, handing Watanuki a box tied with a gold ribbon.

Watanuki delicately pulled off the bow and lifted the lid to reveal four square chocolate brownies. "Mmm, they smell delicious! We can have them with our tea. Mokona!"

"Tea and alcohol!" Mokona corrected him as it bounced into the room with a teapot on its head.

"Whoa, what is that?" Taiki bent down to look at the small black creature.

"Mokona is Mokona!" it explained.

"Please, everyone, take a seat," Watanuki said as he set out plates and teacups.

After they had eaten the brownies (which were just as delicious as Watanuki would expect from anything touched by Himawari's hallowed hands), Watanuki sat back on his cushion and lit his pipe. "I was thinking that we could have a hundred-ghost-story night. An abbreviated one, of course."

"Aren't those usually done at O-Bon, in summer?" Himawari asked. "It's almost November now."

"That's true," Watanuki replied, "but this is exactly the time for ghost stories in America." He glanced at Taiki. "Where your older brother's studying."

"Hey, that's right!" Taiki nodded vigorously. "He mentioned something about it in his last email. I guess they have a lot of parties on campus and stuff. He and some of his friends were going to go visit this old theater in their town that's supposed to be haunted."

"I know how much you miss him, and and I thought you might feel closer to him if you could do something close to what he's doing at the same time."

"That's a wonderful idea, Watanuki-kun!" Himawari beamed. "Should we each tell one story?"

"Yes, I think once around the table should be enough." Watanuki got up and used his pipe to light candles that were placed all around the room. Then he turned off the electric lights and returned to his seat. "Since I'm the host, I guess I'll start." The candlelight flickered, and the shadows it cast seemed to flit over the walls, as if someone were slipping from one concealed spot to another. "This story is about something that happened back when I was a kid and Yuuko-san still ran the shop. Taiki-kun, your father and Himawari-chan are part of it too..."

* * *

**A/N:** If you've been following me for a while, you may have noticed that I usually publish a ghostly or otherwise creepy story around Halloween. The previous ones have generally been one-shots, but this year I'm intending to do a (relatively short) chaptered story. There will be four chapters after this one, and my goal is to post the last chapter on Halloween.

Regarding the mention of Kohane being Taiki's mother: there's an OVA for _xXxHoLiC_ set post-series in which it's mentioned that Doumeki and Kohane are engaged.

The Hundred Ghost Story Night tradition, which plays a role in one of the stories in _xXxHoLiC_, has its origin in a game/ritual from Edo Period Japan. The name of this tradition in Japanese is Hyakumongatari Kaidankai, with the "Hyakumonogatari" part meaning "one hundred tales/stories." Shi is the Japanese word for four, so the title of this fic means "Four Stories." But the Japanese word for death is also pronounced shi, so an alternate reading could be "Stories of Death" or "Stories of the Dead"...which seemed appropriate for a Halloween story.


	2. The Tenth Plate: Watanuki's Story

**Disclaimer: **Still don't own it.

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**The Tenth Plate: Watanuki's Story**

The man who came to the door of the shop was portly, with the kind of mustache that used to be called "mutton chops." He was in his forties and wearing a suit the same shade of gray as the mustache. He was also wearing the embarrassed expression I'd seen on a few of the shop's customers before. It was the look of someone who had been told to come to the shop, but didn't quite believe we'd be able to do anything.

He introduced himself as Odaka and gratefully accepted my offer of tea. He continued to look uncomfortable as he sipped at it, staring around the room as if surprised to find that a supposedly wish-granting shop would have such a normal appearance. When Yuuko-san asked what his wish was, Odaka-san hesitated for a few seconds before starting to talk about his new house.

"I was lucky enough to make a lot of money when the company I started went public," he told her. "With some of the money, I bought a beautiful old house on the outskirts of the city. The house itself has been rebuilt a couple of times since it was originally built back in the Edo Period. I wanted to have not just my wife and children, but my parents living there with me. They're starting to get older, you know, and I'd like to make sure they don't have to worry about anything in their 'golden years'."

"That's very admirable," she said.

"Well, at first, things were going great! I had the house renovated, the grounds cleared up, and so on. Planted a couple of trees and had a cover put on this old well in the front yard. After a few months of work, the place was ready for us all to move in.

At the end of the first day, we all collapsed into our beds, exhausted by the move. Just as I was starting to drift off to sleep, I heard a thump. It sounded like it was coming from outside. Then I heard a woman's voice. She was counting. 'One, two, three,' and so on. She went all the way up to nine. Obviously I was wondering who she was and why she was counting, but I didn't get to think about it very long. After she got to nine, instead of saying 'ten,' she screamed. It was this awful shriek, like something you'd hear in a horror movie just before the alien or monster or whatever pounces on its latest victim."

"What happened after the scream?"

"Well, of course my wife and I both sat bolt upright in bed! My wife was terrified, because she thought it was our daughter or my mother who had screamed. But my daughter ran into the room just then: _she_ thought the wailing had come from my wife! We checked on my mother, and she was fine too. So obviously the screaming woman was outside. She sounded terrified, so we called the police. The shrieking had stopped by the time they got there, and even though they searched the whole property, they didn't find anyone in distress. There was one odd thing, though: the cover I'd had put on the well was sitting on the ground next to it. They were worried that someone might have fallen in, but of course that was one of the first places they looked when they were examining the yard, and there was no one there."

"Was that the only time this happened?"

"No! No, far from it. It's happened every night since then. None of us can get any sleep, and my children are scared out of their wits."

Yuuko-san promised Odaka-san that she'd look into the matter, and I showed him out. I was sure he was being troubled by some kind of spirit, and something about his story sounded familiar to me. Something about a ghost that always counts up to nine...

That night, when the moon rose, Yuuko-san and I went out into the backyard. She was carrying a long, thin scarf in one hand. Without so much as a word of warning, a circle filled with complicated symbols appeared on the ground with her at its center. At the time, I only knew what a few of the symbols meant: phases of the moon, zodiac symbols, things like that. It started to spin around, and the end of the scarf that Yuuko-san wasn't holding onto started to rise up into the air. The whole time, there was this feeling like the air was _heavy_ somehow, the way it feels right before a big thunderstorm. The scarf kept floating up and up, until it was higher than the roofs of the buildings on either side of the shop. It seemed longer than any scarf could possibly be. I remember thinking, _But I guess I shouldn't be surprised; everything Yuuko-san owns is weird._ She just stood there for a while with her head tilted back to look at the sky, until the scarf fell back down and shrunk to its normal size.

"Now I know where it is," she said.

"Where _what _is?"

"The tenth plate."

"What? What does that mean? Why can't you ever explain anything clearly?"

"It's a long story, so you'd better go get some sake for me to drink while I tell it."

* * *

I brought out a bottle of sake, and we sat on the back porch and drank while Yuuko-san told me about Okiku-san and the ten plates. It's an old story that's been retold many times, which explains why part of it had sounded vaguely familiar. It's been adapted for the _bunraku_ puppet theater, for _kabuki_, and even as an episode of a TV series! According to the story, there was this servant named Okiku-san who worked for a samurai's family. The samurai was in love with her, but she always turned him down. So he hid one of these ten precious Dutch plates the family owned. She was in charge of washing them, so naturally the assumption was that she'd lost or broken it. When she admitted her "mistake" to him, he said that he wouldn't fire her for it if only she'd return his love. But she refused again, and he got so angry that he killed her and threw her body into a well.

But as Yuuko-san once told me, the burden of killing a person is very, very heavy. That night, as the samurai got ready for bed, he heard Okiku-san's voice counting. She counted from one to nine and then screamed, a bloodcurdling scream just like the one the customer had heard. The samurai realized she was counting the plates and shrieking when she couldn't find the tenth one. That went on for night after night, and different versions of the story say different things about how the samurai handled it. Some say he moved away, some say he hired a priest to finish the count for her so that she could move on, and some say he committed _seppuku_ so that he could finally be with her.

"Now I remember the story!" I told Yuuko-san. "But I thought it happened at Himeji Castle?"

"It's true that most people think that's where it happened, because the popular _bunraku_ version of the story sets it there. But as with most old tales, there are myriad versions, and the details differ slightly from one to another."

"So it didn't really happen at Himeji Castle? It happened at this guy's house instead? That's creepy!"

"What do you think we should do about it?"

Yuuko-san was looking at me with that enigmatic smile of hers, and I got the feeling that she was testing me. "Well...one version of the story says that a priest was hired to finish Okiku-san's count, right? We could get Doumeki to do something like that."

"And do you think that would be enough? Would just hearing someone call out 'ten' be likely to placate Okiku-san's ghost?"

"It might make her think that someone had found the tenth plate."

"Think about the various spirits you've encountered. Would most of them be likely to fall for such a simple trick?"

I had to admit that they wouldn't. "So what _should_ we do?"

"My, my, you can be a bit slow sometimes," Yuuko-san said. Needless to say, that annoyed me, and Maru and Moro chorusing "Slow on on the uptake!" in the background didn't help. "Didn't I just say that I had found the tenth plate? Now all we need to do is retrieve it."

Now, you have to understand, Yuuko-san often had me do things that seemed pretty outlandish at first. So I was expecting her to come out with something like, "Oh, it's in an art museum, but don't worry, all you have to do is break in and steal it!" But instead she told me that it was at Doumeki's temple.

"Does that mean we have to spend the evening with Doumeki?" _I would much rather spend it with Himawari-chan!_

"Well, then, you're in luck! She's offered to help Doumeki-kun organize the books in the temple's collection."

"...My inner voice just became an outer voice again, didn't it?"

* * *

Sure enough, we found Doumeki and Himawari-chan in the outbuilding behind the temple, sorting through stacks of books. Yuuko-san told them the story of Okiku-san. Himwari-chan stared at her with rapt attention, and Doumeki nodded periodically in a way that made me think he was already familiar with it.

"I do have that plate," he said when Yuuko-san was done talking. "In his will, my grandfather instructed that it should stay at the temple 'until it's needed.'" He led us into the main temple and showed us a beautiful plate mounted on the wall of a side alcove. It was about the size of an average dinner plate, with an exquisitely detailed blue design on a white background. The picture showed a tall building on the bank of a river. A boat was tied up at a dock alongside the building, with a willow tree hanging over it.

He lifted the plate down and offered it to Yuuko-san, who held it for a few moments and then pronounced, "Yes, this is definitely the right plate. Of course, Watanuki here will make you a full dinner to pay you for it."

"What! I never said I'd do that!"

* * *

When we left a few hours later, I assumed we would go back to the shop, but Yuuko-san led me in a completely different direction. "Uh, where are we going?"

"To return Okiku-san's plate, of course!"

"Now? Shouldn't we prepare or something? I mean, we're talking about going to meet an angry ghost here."

"She won't be angry when we give her plate back. Besides, you heard our client talk about how agonized she is when she can't find the missing one. Do you want to let her go through another night of that?"

"...No, I guess I don't."

We came to Odaka-san's house, and Yuuko-san just pushed the gate open and traipsed right in like she owned the place. The well was off to the side of the house, under a _sakura_ tree. "Now what?"

"Now we wait for Okiku-san to appear."

It was the night of a new moon, so it was almost totally dark. Cicadas were buzzing and some kind of small animal was rustling around in the bushes. I got that shivery feeling I always got in those days when there were spirits nearby, and as time went on it got stronger and stronger.

After what felt like hours, I heard a soft rattling that wasn't coming from the bushes. It sounded like it was coming from the well in front of us. Because it was so dark, at first I couldn't tell what was happening, but then I realized that the noise must be the wooden cover our client had installed clattering against the stone of the well. A louder thump told me when it had finally been pushed off entirely. My palms were all sweaty, and when Yuuko-san shoved the plate into my hands, I almost dropped it.

"Why are you giving this to me?"

"So you can return it to Okiku-san!"

"You want _me_ to do it? You're the one who has years of experience handling this kind of thing! What if I do something wrong? What if I offend her? Honestly, Yuuko-san, I think it would be better if you-"

But I didn't have any more time to protest, because now I could see movement at the open mouth of the well. A pair of dimly-glowing hands appeared, followed by a head and a torso. The woman climbed out of the well and sat on the edge of it. She had long, jet-black hair that fell down her back, and she was wearing a _kimono_ with a classic cherry blossom pattern. Her face would have been beautiful if it wasn't so full of anxiety. She looked like a woman who had been kept from sleep for many nights by a persistent worry.

"One," she said, and even though her voice was soft, it echoed through the grounds.

"Two. Three. Four. Five. Six."

I glanced back and forth between Okiku-san and Yuuko-chan, hoping to get some clue as to what I was supposed to do. Should I just walk up and hand her the plate? Was there some kind of ceremony or ritual I had to perform? Yuuko-san was completely unhelpful; she just stood there looking at me and smiling.

"Seven. Eight. Nine."

_Now or never_, I thought, and stepped forward, holding the plate out. "Here! Okiku-san, I found your lost plate for you!"

Okiku-san looked at me, looked at the plate, then snatched it out of my hands. She bent over it, running her fingers over the designs and examining it closely for any cracks or flaws. Finally, she looked up at me again. "Ten," she whispered, and a tentative smile formed on her lips. "Ten!" she repeated, louder this time. The smile stretched into a grin. "TEN!" She started to glow, brighter and brighter until I had to close my left eye. With my right, I saw her turn into a shining mist that dissipated into the surrounding air.

The plate was left behind, and I just barely managed to catch it before it hit the ground. "I did it, Yuuko-san! I did it!"

"Of course you did, Watanuki," Yuuko-san answered, as though she'd never had any doubt.

"What do we do with the plate now? Give it back to Doumeki?"

"No, we paid him for it, so there's no need to return it. The person we should give it to is him." She pointed to the house, and I saw Odaka-san running toward us, dressed in pajamas.

"Ah! I'm so sorry for trespassing!" I exclaimed. "It was all Yuuko-san's idea; I'm entirely blameless!"

"What? Trespassing? No, no, I don't care about that. All I care about is that you got her to leave! My family can have a good night's sleep for the first time in weeks!"

Yuuko-san gestured to the plate in my hands. "This is what the ghost was searching for, and it is now yours to keep. Now, about your own payment..."

"Of course, I'll get my checkbook."

"Money is not what I require. The appropriate price for the service we have done you is the _daisho_ mounted in your living room."

Our client's face fell. "But that _daisho_ belonged to an ancestor of mine; it dates back to the Meiji era!"

"Yes, it did belong to one of your ancestors. A samurai, who once had a servant by the name of Okiku-san."

My head whipped around to look at Yuuko-san so fast, I was surprised I didn't end up with whiplash. "But Okiku-san was..."

"The ghost, yes. That is why the _daisho_ is an appropriate price. It was the most prized possession of the man who wronged her, and so it's only fair that it should be given up to those who allowed her to rest."

A look of recognition passed over our client's face, and it was clear that he was familiar with the story of Okiku-san. "My ancestor did that?" His shoulders slumped. "When my children were young and asked about the _daisho_, I told them our ancestor was a proud warrior who embodied an ancient code of honor and chivalry. What should I tell them now?"

"The truth: that if you go back far enough in history, no one's lineage is entirely without blemish. The important thing is for each generation to strive to do better than the one before."

"Why Watanuki, that was unexpectedly profound," Yuuko-san said in a gently teasing voice.

"I suppose you're right," he sighed. "Please, come inside. You can have some tea while I wrap up the _daisho_."

* * *

_"I remember that," Himawari said. "You told the story well!"_

_"Thank you," Watanuki acknowledged, inclining his head._

_"It's great that you were able to help Okiku-san," Taiki said. "I read about her in a book of ghost stories once, and I thought it was more sad than scary. But what a coincidence, that guy living in the house with Okiku-san's well when it was his ancestor who killed her!"_

_Watanuki smiled, watching as tendrils of smoke from one of the candles curled around the edge of an ornamental screen like fingers. "There is no coincidence in this world. What there is, is hitsuzen."_

* * *

**A/N:** A _daisho_ is the set of two swords (_katana_ and _wakizashi_) traditionally carried by samurai.

The story of Okiku-san is a classic Japanese ghost story. As Watanuki tells his guests, it's been adapted for a variety of media formats, one of which sets it in Himeji Castle. Apparently the castle is a major tourist attraction, and while it's closed at night, the supposed sightings (or hearings?) of Okiku-san's ghost have continued to this day.

Doumeki's story is going to be next, so stay tuned!


	3. The Woods are Lovely, Dark and Deep

**Disclaimer:** Nope, still don't own.

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**The Woods are Lovely, Dark and Deep: Doumeki's Story**

_"Who's going to go next?" Himawari asked._

_"I'll go," Doumeki volunteered. "My story happened in America, when I was invited to give a lecture on Japanese folklore at one of the universities there."_

_Watanuki remembered how proud Himawari had been when he told her that Doumeki had been invited to one of the big universities in Boston, on the east coast of the United States. Her enthusiasm had been a sharp contrast to Doumeki's own understated reaction. There had been a time when Watanuki would have been jealous of Doumeki, but after a few years of running the shop, he instead found himself happy that Doumeki might be able to teach other people about the spirit world and how to interact with it properly. _So many people get into trouble because they've forgotten even the simplest things...

* * *

I gave my talk in a huge lecture hall that looked more like the inside of a cathedral than a classroom. The students seemed to enjoy it, and the professors complimented me afterward on the depth of my research. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you had actually met some of these spirits!" one of them joked. The professor who'd invited me, Marie Rickleton, took me out to dinner at a local restaurant with some of the other department faculty, then gave me a ride back to my hotel. Just as I was about to get out of the car, she told me that she was investigating a serious occult matter, and asked if I'd be willing to help with it. I told her I would, and we made plans to meet the next day.

She drove a stereotypical college professor's car: a beat-up old station wagon with a trunk crammed full of miscellaneous junk. At least it would _look_ like junk to most people. To me, it seemed more like a portable version of the shop's treasure room. As I got in the next morning, she pointed to a bag of snacks in the backseat and told me to help myself, since we had a long drive ahead of us.

Professor Rickleton told me we were heading out to the western part of the state, which is mostly composed of small towns separated by huge tracts of forest that, in many cases, haven't been touched since Europeans first settled the area. Naturally, these forests are popular with campers and hikers. Usually they have a good time, but occasionally someone antagonizes a bear or a mountain lion...or something worse.

I asked her what she meant by something worse, and she pointed to a few newspaper clippings that sat on the backseat next to the bag of snacks. Flipping through them, I was glad to have the peach-wood ring Watanuki had given me. I had a feeling I would need it.

"Four hikers were brought to local hospitals with symptoms of severe malnutrition, as if they hadn't eaten for days. But they hadn't gotten lost, and reported having eaten normal meals. Then a fifth man was brought in with the same symptoms, though more severe. His first night in the hospital, he attacked a nurse who came in to change his IV bag. He bit a chunk of flesh off her arm and..."

"And ate it."

"You said this was an occult matter, so I'm assuming this isn't just some kind of psychiatric illness."

"Well, I suppose one could call it that, but it's one that can only be caused by an encounter with a particular type of malign spirit. Most of our knowledge of them comes from indigenous American peoples, who called it a wendigo."

"I think I've heard the name before. It's associated with cannibalism, isn't it? That would make sense, given what the fifth victim did."

During the drive, Professor Rickleton described what she thought we were up against. The wendigo was a spirit-creature that embodied overwhelming hunger. It could drain away the reserves of anyone who caught even a glimpse of it, leaving them starving regardless of how well-fed they were. And if it actually managed to touch you, you would find yourself experiencing an insatiable craving for the flesh of your own species.

The farther west we drove, the smaller the towns got. Eventually, human habitation gave way altogether to arrow-straight pines and leafy oaks. The road was bordered on both sides by forest so thick you couldn't see more than a few feet into it. When Professor Rickleton pulled off into the parking area for a secluded campground and we got out of the car, I took a deep breath of air scented with soil and sap. It was a rich smell, one that would have put me at ease if I hadn't known why we were there.

In addition to all her occult materials, Professor Rickleton also had a lot of camping gear stashed in the trunk of her car. While she set up a tent, I went off to gather firewood...and to observe the forest. I could hear birds chirping, insects singing, and small animals like squirrels darting from tree to tree. Even with my right eye, I only saw the normal activity of a woodland environment. So far, nothing seemed to be amiss.

Things changed as soon as the sun set. That may sound like a cliche, but it's true. Maybe it's _because_ it's true that it's been repeated often enough to become a cliche. Anyway, the sounds of animals that are active during the day diminished, and no nocturnal animal sounds replaced them. It was as if any animals that were awake were staying quiet to avoid drawing attention. We cooked dinner over the fire we'd built, and we each ate a couple of protein bars. It was a tactic Professor Rickleton had suggested, to give our bodies more reserves of energy since we would almost certainly have to look at the wendigo in the process of fighting it. Of course, I had brought along my own supplies as well: a roll of paper, a brush, and some ink. Laying them out on top of a flat rock, I wrote wards and placed them around our campsite.

With only the light of the fire, we couldn't see very far into the trees surrounding the campsite, but we could hear that the eerie silence persisted. Against that background, we immediately noticed when we started to hear twigs cracking a ways off. I could feel the ring on my finger tingling as I took up an archery stance. Professor Rickleton and I were standing on opposite sides of the fire, and I saw her eyes widen as its smoke congealed between my hands and formed a bow nearly as long as I am tall.

The twig-snapping sounds got closer and closer, and despite the blazing fire, the air around us seemed to get colder. I could just barely distinguish a shadow slipping from one tree to another, and my stomach rumbled. The wendigo approached slowly and cautiously, but it finally came into view.

It was hideous. It looked superficially human, but it was so gaunt that it couldn't possibly have been capable of moving around if it had been human. Its hair was stringy and its body was covered with matted greyish fur. It had long, ragged nails and too many teeth to fit in its mouth properly. The instant I saw it clearly, a pang of hunger stabbed my stomach, and I was glad I'd eaten those protein bars. If I hadn't, my hands would've already started to tremble the way they do when your blood sugar gets too low, and I wouldn't have been able to aim the bow accurately.

The wendigo skulked around the border of our campsite. It obviously wanted to get to us, but was stymied by the wards I'd set up. I pulled back the bowstring, but just as I released it, my stomach convulsed again and the shot went wide. The wendigo howled and scooped up a large stone from the ground. It threw the stone at me, and although I was able to dive out of the way, it hit one of the wards, knocking it to the ground.

"Get away from it!" Professor Rickleton shouted, but by the time I scrambled to my feet, the wendigo was already sprinting toward me. She drew a circular object from the pocket of the slate-grey coat she was wearing and tossed it at the monster. As it turned over and over through the air, it got bigger, expanding into a net that landed perfectly over the wendigo. As it struggled to escape the folds of the net, I took a few steps back and drew my bow again. This time, the arrow soared straight and true through the air, as silver as the moonlight. The net was obviously some kind of mystical charm, so I was worried that it might block the arrow from getting in as well as it kept the wendigo from getting out, but the arrow passed through the strands and hit the wendigo square in the chest.

With a bloodcurdling howl, the creature dissolved, and the net floated down to the ground. As soon as it touched the earth, it reverted to a disk about three inches wide.

"Are you okay?" Professor Rickleton asked me. I saw that she was keeping her distance from me, and she had one hand in the pocket of her coat, no doubt poised to pull out some other charm or ward. "Did it touch you?"

"I'm fine. And it didn't touch me, thanks to you. What was that net, anyway?"

With a sigh of relief, Professor Rickleton picked up the disk and held it out to me. The frame was made of willow wood, and the "net" was made of taut cords that I thought must be sinew, joined to the frame at six points. A soft brown feather dangled below the circle. "It's a dreamcatcher," she explained to me. "Its original purpose is to be hung above a bed and capture nightmares so they don't trouble the sleeper, but it can be used to restrain other sorts of evils as well."

"Is that an owl feather?"

"It is. You can use owl or eagle feathers to adorn a dreamcatcher. Traditionally, owl feathers are for women since they represent wisdom, while eagle feathers are for men because they represent courage. Gender roles aren't as rigid today, of course, but the Ojibwe man who made this for me said he thought an owl feather was still more fitting for a scholar."

"That's a potent item," I said, and it was true. When I looked at it with my right eye, it seemed to glow with a light that was distinct from the fire behind us.

"What worries me is whether there are more of those things," she said.

"I don't think there are," I answered. "Listen, you can hear the normal sounds of the forest coming back." An owl was (appropriately enough) hooting somewhere off in the distance, and frogs were starting to croak at the nearby reservoir.

We moved back to our seats by the fire. "Well, now that you've seen the kind of spirits we have to deal with here, why don't you tell me about some of your work in Japan?" Professor Rickleton suggested.

* * *

_The ornamental screen in the corner rattled. Watanuki glanced over and saw a shadow dart behind it as he turned his head. "Are you all right, Taiki-kun?"_

_Taiki was staring at the screen too, and his face had gone pale. "I'm fine!" he said, swallowing hard. "That story was just a little scary, that's all."_

_"Ah, but ghost stories __**should**__ be scary, shouldn't they?" Watanuki set down his pipe on a stand that rested by his feet. "Well, Himawari-chan, would you like to go next?"_

* * *

**A/N:** The wendigo is a creature from Native American folklore, particularly the Algonquian tribes such as the Cree and Ojibwe. They've been incorporated into various horror stories, such as Stephen King's novel _Pet Sematary_.

Dreamcatchers originated in the Ojibwe tribe, and in addition to the significance of the feathers that Professor Rickleton mentions, other elements of their construction also have symbolic meanings. For example, different numbers of attachment points to the frame had different meanings (six attachment points were thought to symbolize courage).

The title of this chapter (aside from the "Doumeki's Story" part, obviously) is from a poem by Robert Frost.


	4. By the Side of the Road:Himawari's Story

**Disclaimer:** Sadly, I did not magically gain ownership of _xXxHoLiC_ since posting the previous chapter.

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**By the Side of the Road: Himawari's Story**

I'm sorry I can't tell you a story that's happened to me, but you know I've never been able to see spirits. Like the thing that took your sherbet that one time, remember, Watanuki-kun? But this is something that happened to my husband, Tsunozaki, a few years before we met.

He'd gotten a summer internship in Osaka, but was staying with a family who lived out in the suburbs to save money. He had a little used car that he'd drive from their house to the train station every morning and back at night.

One night, Tsunozaki saw a girl standing by the side of the street holding out her thumb. She couldn't have been more than fourteen, and he was astonished to see such a young girl hitchhiking. He didn't stop for her, though, because you aren't supposed to pick up strangers in your car. Besides, if she was leaving Osaka, she probably wanted to go to some other city, and he was only traveling to a town a few miles down the road.

Driving home the next night, he saw her again. She looked so forlorn and lonely, and this time he noticed a few details about her that he hadn't before: the dirt and stains on her shirt, the greasy sheen that suggested her hair hadn't been washed in a long time. _She must be homeless_, he thought. Despite his pangs of sympathy, his mother's stern admonishments to him about his safety before he left to live on his own for the summer echoed in his ears, and once again he didn't stop.

The third night, it rained. The girl was still standing there, in the exact same spot, with her thumb held out in the exact same way, and in the downpour she looked more miserable than ever. _This is ridiculous_, he thought. _If she __**was**__ a thief looking for a mark, surely she'd choose a different spot after having no luck at this place three nights in a row? And even if she is, she's tiny! I could overpower her with one hand tied behind my back if I had to. Am I going to let her die of pneumonia out here because I'm scared of a girl who's barely old enough to be out of middle school? Is that the kind of man I am?_ Tsunozaki chastised himself all the way home, promising that he'd pick her up if she was still there the next night.

The family he was staying with were very perceptive, and noticed that he seemed troubled. When one of them asked if something was wrong, he told them about the girl. He concluded his story by conveying his resolve to help her if he could.

"You mustn't do that!" the mother cried. "Promise me you won't!" She lunged across the table and grabbed his hands. He was shocked, because she was usually very reserved, especially around people she hadn't known for very long.

"Why not? Is she some kind of dangerous criminal or something?"

The mother and father looked at each other, and the father chimed in. "You're probably going to think we're superstitious country folk, but we've heard stories about a girl like that. She's shown up on roads all over the island. But anyone who picks her up just...disappears. No one ever sees them again, or even finds their cars."

"Wait, if that's true, how does anyone know the girl is involved at all?"

"Because they all go through the same process you did. In today's world, everyone knows that it can be dangerous to pick up hitchhikers. But that girl just looks so pathetic, standing out there day after day, that people start to feel for her. And like you did, they talk about that to whoever they live with. All this has come out in police interviews of the next-of-kin."

"Then why hasn't she been arrested?"

The father stood up from the table. "Because the police can never find her. The only people who ever see her are her victims."

I know you're probably thinking that even though this is scary, it's not really a ghost story. There's nothing ghostly about a serial killer, right? But the story doesn't end there. When Tsunozaki drove home on Thursday, the girl was there again. He shivered as he drove right past her without even slowing down. Disaster seemed to have been averted...until he saw movement when he glanced in the rearview mirror.

The girl was running after him.

She was sprinting in the wake of his car, arms pumping. He sped up, but she kept on coming, and his forehead broke out in a cold sweat when he realized she was gaining on him. Usually she had a sort of pleading look on her face, but now it was twisted in a snarl. She opened her mouth to shout at him, and her mouth was filled with teeth that were much too long and much too sharp for her to be a normal person.

Tsunozaki floored the gas pedal, and his car shot forward. To his relief, his next look at the mirror showed her starting to fall behind.

When he got home, he thanked his hosts for warning him. "I think you might have saved my life," he told them.

On Friday, he took a different route home. He never used that road again.

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_"Whoa," Taiki said. "We went on a class trip to Osaka last year. I'm glad we didn't see that...whatever she was!"_

_"It did sound awfully scary," Himawari confirmed. "We went to Osaka last year for our anniversary, because I've always wanted to visit, and even then he wouldn't drive on that road. Anyway, have you thought of what story you'd like to tell?"_

_Taiki quickly looked away, his gaze flitting back and forth between Watanuki and the screen in the corner. "Yeah." He placed his palms flat on the floor and leaned forward to touch his forehead to the tatami. "I apologize, Watanuki-san. I've brought a spirit here."_

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**A/N:** So, I didn't quite make my goal of finishing the story by Halloween, but at least I'm posting a chapter today, right? For this one, I wanted to do a variant on a classic ghost story: in this case, the ghostly hitchhiker. Plus the "Of course ghosts exist, there's one here right now!" twist.


	5. To Absent Friends: Taiki's Story

**Disclaimer: **Nope, still don't own it.

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**To Absent Friends: Taiki's Story**

"No need to apologize," Watanuki assured him. "You wouldn't have been able to enter this shop at all if you didn't have a wish, and I assumed the wish had something to do with this spirit. Would you like to tell me about it?"

Taiki looked down at his hands, which were clenched in his lap. In a slow, halting voice, he began to speak. "There was this girl in my class at school that I really liked. Her name was Kaede. Some of the other kids teased her because she had lots of freckles, but I thought she was really pretty. When she invited me to her birthday party, it took me a whole week to decide what to get her.

Then one day, she didn't show up at school. I figured she just had a cold or something and hoped she'd get better soon. But she wasn't there the next day either. The day after that, I started to think that maybe she was really sick. I got her a get-well-soon card that day on the way home from school. I took it with me the next day. When I sat down at my desk in homeroom, my best friend came up to me. 'Did you hear about Kaede-chan?' he asked.

'Well, I know she must be really sick to miss school four days in a row. I got her a card, though. I'll drop it off at her house on my way home today.'

'Taiki...Kaede-chan isn't coming back to school anymore. There was a car accident...'

'What's wrong? Was she hurt?'

My friend started looking like he was about to cry. I knew the news must be really bad, because he's always been tougher than me. 'She didn't make it, Taiki.'"

Doumeki had shifted closer to Taiki, and Himawari looked stricken. "Go on," Watanuki urged gently.

"When I got home that day, I told Tou-san and Kaa-san what had happened. I think...I think Kaa-san knew already, didn't she?"

Doumeki nodded. "She knew you were going to find out something terrible that day, but she didn't know what. She asked me whether we should keep you home from school, but I told her that wouldn't keep you from finding out. You'd just hear about it the next day, or one of your friends would call you at home."

"I kind of wanted to be alone, so I went up to my room. It was a lot colder than usual, but I figured the heater was just broken. It was weird, though, because that was the only room in the house that was cold.

The cold seemed to follow me around after that. And there was other stuff too. I'd put something down, and when I went to look for it later, it wouldn't be there anymore. Or I'd see a curtain or the leaves on a tree moving even when there was no breeze. Well, growing up with my parents, I'd heard all kinds of stories like that." Taiki looked over at Doumeki. "I know that when somebody dies, they're supposed to move on to the next world. But I...I missed Kaede-chan a lot, and I didn't want her to leave! So I didn't tell you what was going on, because I was afraid you'd exorcise her. I'm sorry. I know I should have said something."

"I understand why you didn't," Doumeki replied. "But if you're telling us now..."

Taiki nodded. "I want Kaede-chan to be happy! If she's stuck here because of something bad that happened or something she's worried about, then I want to help her. I want her to be where she's supposed to be, even if..." He trailed off, sniffled, then continued in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "...Even if that's not here."

"Is that your wish?" Watanuki asked.

"Yes."

"Then I will grant it." Watanuki stood and walked over to the screen. It trembled as he approached. "You don't need to be afraid," he said soothingly. "You heard what Taiki-kun said: I just want to help you get to where you need to go." He smiled. "He _is_ a good boy, isn't he? Despite being Doumeki's son. It must be Kohane-chan's influence on him."

"I'm sitting right here, you know," Doumeki grumbled.

Watanuki bent his head, as if listening intently to someone hiding behind the screen, then turned back to his guests. "Taiki-kun, there's something Kaede-chan wants you to know. She says that you don't have to blame yourself."

The color drained from Taiki's face. "She-"

"Why would she think that you might blame yourself?" Doumeki asked slowly.

"Because it was my fault." Taiki stood and turned away, fists clenched. "That day, the day of the accident, I was thinking of asking her to visit the temple gardens with me. I was really proud of all the flowers Kaa-san and I had planted together, and I wanted to show her. But...I was scared. What if she said no? Every time I tried to get up the nerve to ask her, I just couldn't! And then class would start, or one of her friends would come up to talk to her, or something. And then, before I knew it, the day was over and she was getting into her parents' car. If I'd been braver, if I'd asked her to walk over to the temple with me and she'd said yes, then she'd...she'd...she'd still be alive!"

The screen rocked back and forth, wobbling ever more violently until it fell over. "See? She's mad at me! Kaede-chan, I'm sorry!"

"You're wrong," Watanuki said quietly. "She's not mad at you." He crossed the room and put a hand on Taiki's shoulder. "Yuuko-san told me once that only the person who was most affected by an event can say whether it's a big deal or not. If Kaede-chan doesn't believe that her death was your fault, there's no reason for you to feel that it is."

"Then why is she still here? Why is she following me around?"

"Because she's worried about you. She knows that you've been blaming yourself for her death, and she's been trying to tell you not to."

"Where is she? Can you show me?"

"She's right here." Watanuki waved his hand through the air next to the fallen screen, describing a vaguely human-like shape.

Taiki turned to face the spot Watanuki had pointed out and bowed. "I'm sorry to have made you worry, Kaede-chan. The truth is that I do blame myself for what happened to you, and I don't think that's something that'll go away overnight. But I'll keep reminding myself that you weren't angry at me, and that you even cared about me enough to stay behind. So over time, I'll change, right?"

Doumeki nodded approvingly, and Watanuki smiled. "We'll still need to recite the _sutras_ for her."

"I'll do it," Doumeki said. "Taiki, would you like to help?"

They began to chant, one high voice and one low, and after a minute or two, Himawari joined in. A breeze ruffled the long sleeves of Watanuki's kimono and spread the smoke from his pipe through the room. The pipe smoke created a thin haze that made Taiki's eyes water. He blinked repeatedly, and raised a hand to rub at his eyes.

"Hey! What's-" For a moment, he thought he had seen a girl standing by the toppled-over screen in the corner, just where Watanuki had said Kaede was. _Kaede-chan!_

Doumeki's head whipped around at his son's outburst, and he stared hard at Taiki. _Did he see her?_ Although he had reported feeling Kaede's presence, this was the first time he had ever actually seen a spirit. _So whatever power I possess on my own, plus that granted by yhis right eye, has been passed down to him, huh?_ For his own part, he could see Kaede perfectly clearly. She had nodded solemnly in response to Taiki's vow, and now was growing steadily fainter.

The intertwined voices faded out, Himawari falling silent first, then Doumeki, and finally Taiki. As the last word of the last _sutra_ hung in the air, Kaede disappeared.

"She's gone," Taiki said, sounding both relieved and disappointed. "I don't know how, but I can feel it."

"Yes," Watanuki confirmed. "She's gone where she needs to be."

"I owe you something, right? Tou-san says that every wish comes with a price."

"That's true. Hmm...do you have some toy that was precious to you when you were a little kid? A teddy bear or something similar?"

"I have a stuffed elephant I used to sleep with every night."

"That will do nicely."

As the guests gathered their things to go, Doumeki watched Watanuki. He insisted on helping Himawari into her jacket and answered Taiki's questions about the various knick-knacks in the room. Doumeki felt the weight of the egg in his kimono sleeve, but knew that the time to use it hadn't yet come. _It still makes him happy to help those who need a wish granted, and he's looking forward to seeing how Taiki grows up._

When his friends had departed, Watanuki righted the screen. _Kaede-chan, I'm glad that I could help you find your place. Please, give my regards to Yuuko-san._

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**A/N:** Here we are at the last chapter. I hope you've all enjoyed the ride!


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